Partner Shares

Current Partner Time Allocation

The expected time allocation to each
partner for the current and next semesters is listed in the relevant
Call for Proposals.

Partner Time Distribution

A certain percentage of the semester is used for Observatory engineering (maintenance, instrument commissioning, etc.), and this time is taken off the top of the total possible time available. This percentage is approved by the Gemini Board ahead of each Call for Proposals. Also taken off the top is any time required for instrument Guaranteed Time (GT), campaigns, Science Verification (SV), and limited-term partnerships; campaigns may only be charged to a subset of the partners. Of the remainder, 10% is allocated to the Observatory host (University of Hawaii or Chile). After the deduction of host time, the remaining time is distributed amongst the partner countries according to the partner shares set by the Gemini Board. This partner time is reduced by a 5% allocation of Director's Discretionary Time, available to astronomers worldwide through the Director's Discretionary Time proposal process throughout the semester. The host time and partner time are both open for joint proposals. Partners may also purchase time from each other, or trade time between Gemini North and South. To maintain overall balance amongst the partnership, the allocations to each partner each semester are adjusted from the nominal partner shares as a result of actual time charged up to the preceding semester.

A representative schematic of the time
distribution is given below, right.

The Table below illustrates two example cases of semester time allocation. In Example 1, 10% of the total available time goes to engineering, and 55 hours goes to GT, campaign and SV time. In Example 2,
14% of the total available time goes to engineering, and 180 hours goes to GT, campaign and SV time. For computational convenience it is assumed that there are 10 hours available per night on average.